“Let her go first,” Denison said in a tired tone that said he’d already made up his mind. “At least act like you won’t chase her down the minute you kill us.”
Reynolds chuckled, and she cringed away from the sound so close to her ear. He shoved her forward, releasing his strangle hold on her neck and said, “Deal.”
Denison caught her before she fell. “Run,” he murmured against her ear as he settled her on her feet.
Her face crumpled as tears streamed down her cheeks. She knew what she could and couldn’t do, and she couldn’t walk away from her people. Not knowing what was about to happen to them. “I can’t leave you like this.”
“Badger,” he gritted out. His voice dipped to a barely audible whisper. “I need you out of the way.”
In the distance, an animal roared, and then another, the noise lifting the fine hairs on Danielle’s arms. The woods filled with bellowing grizzly battle cries.
The corner of Denison’s lip turned up. “You clever girl,” he whispered.
“What the fuck was that?” Reynolds asked a pair of men with semi-automatic weapons trained on the forest behind them. “I told you to subdue all of them.”
A giant falcon screeched from above them as she rode the air currents over the landing. Skyler.
Denison lunged at Reynolds as he brought the gun up toward the bird and wrenched his wrist until the clean snap of his bone could be heard.
“Now!” Tagan roared, his face morphing into something horrifying as the alpha spun and jerked the weapon out of his assailant’s hands. Chaos and gunfire erupted. One by one, bears ripped out of her friends in blonds and browns, blacks and reds.
But not Denison and not Brighton. They fought human.
Denison hooked his fingers around Reynold’s throat and slammed him down onto the ground with a sickening thud.
“Run!” he yelled, casting her a blazing look that dumped adrenaline into her system and got her legs moving.
Disoriented, she ran low, afraid of the zinging bullets as she made her escape. Ahead, a line of giant grizzlies was charging the clearing. A scream clogged her throat as they thundered past her without a single glance. Their gazes were murderous and intent as they joined the battle behind her.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” she murmured, as she skidded to a halt near the Bronco and watched her friends fight for their lives.
The gunfire had ceased, and men’s screaming echoed down the mountainside. Fur and Teflon blurred until she couldn’t make out anything in the pandemonium. She searched for Denny, and her heart faltered as she saw him dragging Reynolds out of the fray. Her mate was holding an ax and wore a deadly expression as he slammed the man who’d tortured him and his brother against a tree.
Brighton followed behind, and Denny didn’t even look at him as he turned and tossed his twin the ax. Brighton caught it with one hand, and in a motion as smooth as river water, he pulled it back, rotated his hips, and slammed the blade toward Reynold’s neck.
With a yelp, Danielle covered her ears and turned away before she could see the rest. That evil man had earned his death, but she didn’t have to watch it.
When she dared to look back at the landing, it was all over. Bears were turning back to humans, and the team that had planned on annihilating the entire Ashe Crew lay scattered about the piles of logs and rumbling machinery.
Matt and his Gray Back Crew had come through, and when she counted heads, she realized the Boarlanders were here, too.
She sagged to her knees in disbelief that this had all happened. She’d been pulled from the SUV to find the Ashe Crew on their knees, but they hadn’t been cowering to the men who had come for them. Their fearsome faces had said they were biding their time. They’d had a plan, she just hadn’t known it. Pride surged through her that the crews had taken their territory back and fought together. They might’ve been competitors in the Lumberjack Wars, but when it came to real danger to others of their kind, they’d come running, no matter the physical danger to themselves.
Denison was crouched beside his brother near the tree line. Brighton was on his hands and knees. He had his fists clenched and was leaning hard on them, his teeth gritted as if he was in pain. Denison talked to him as he gripped his brother’s shoulder, then rubbed his back, then gripped his shoulder again.
Brighton’s pain gutted her. Twins had a special bond, and she’d seen the connection between them. That ability to say a hundred things without saying a word. They would share this pain together. Brighton rocked back on his heels and stood, embraced Denison hard, and clapped him on the back. Then Brighton pushed away and stalked off into the woods.